For many Western-trained chefs, cooking is about highlighting an ingredient's natural flavours: take a nice piece of meat or fish, cook it perfectly, sprinkle some salt on it and then tell your guests that you "wanted the lamb to speak for yourself."
That type of cooking has never been my style. While I appreciate that respect for product, as someone who was trained in Asian kitchens, it's impossible for me to meet something edible that couldn't be improved with a little chilli, soy or fish sauce.
A case in point is this Thai eggplant salad. Being half-Romanian, I grew up eating salate de vinete, a humble Transylvanian eggplant salad. I love it. I will always love it. But what Thais do to barbecue eggplant is, well, just better. More chilli. More fish sauce. More deliciousness. When I first had it in Bangkok, it was a revelation, and I still feel that there are few recipes out there that can match its clarity of flavour and understated complexity.
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